This archive report was first published on 11 July 2020.
On July 6, 2020, the Trump administration issued a directive requiring foreign students to leave the US if their classes were moved online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) asked affected students to depart the country or face immigration consequences, including deportation.
Prof. Kefa Otiso, a Kenyan lecturer at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, termed the order as punitive, saying Kenya should send a protest note to the US government through its ambassador.
“There is no justification in suddenly disrupting the lives of Kenyans in America,” he said.
Several universities, including Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have challenged the directive in court, arguing that online learning would pose significant challenges for international students.
“Because of these challenges, many international students could abandon their studies,” Harvard and MIT said in their suit.
According to the Kenya Scholars and Studies Association, there were over 4,000 Kenyan students enrolled in US higher learning institutions in the 2019/20 academic year.
International students in the US contributed $44.7 billion to the US economy in 2018, with China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Canada having the highest number of foreign students during the period.
